Voters who want Cornel West on presidential ballot sue North Carolina election board
RALEIGH, NC — Three registered voters in North Carolina are suing the State Board of Elections, alleging it violated their constitutional rights by rejecting a petition seeking recognition of a political party that would overturn the election. Cornel West on the presidential ballot.
The lawsuit filed Monday increases pressure on the Democratic majority of the election board, which last week refused to certify the Justice for All Party of North Carolina.
On Tuesday, a Republican-led House oversight committee also asked House Speaker Alan Hirsch why he and others rejected the proposal after their staff confirmed that voters had collected the required number of signatures to gain party recognition.
The council this month certified two other political parties that had collected more than the required 13,865 signatures: We The People, which Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on the ballot, and the Constitution Party of North Carolina.
Republicans and allies of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump have said Democratic board members tried to keep West — a professor and progressive activist — from getting on the ballot because he could steal votes from the Democratic nominee, who was expected to be President Joe Biden until he dropped his re-election bid last weekend. Since then, Vice President Kamala Harris has secured the nomination of Democratic representatives.
Clear Choice Action, a group affiliated with a super PAC led by Biden supporters, also wrote a letter to the board last month asking it to reject petitions from Justice for All and We The People.
Hirsch said he was concerned about how a group called People Over Party collected many of the signatures. A lawyer for People Over Party has said the group did not cooperate with Justice for All. Hirsch noted that election board officials said last week that many of the nearly 50 people they randomly contacted from the petition list said they had not signed the petition or did not know what it was for. Monday’s lawsuit was filed by a registered Democrat and two independent voters whose signatures were among the signatures collected.
“I understand the political dynamics here. I’m not naive about that,” Hirsch told the House Oversight Committee on Tuesday. “But this decision was based entirely on the facts as I’ve just described them.”
Hirsch also said council staff is conducting a criminal investigation after “district officials recognized or identified signatures they believed to be fraudulent.” He declined to provide details, citing the ongoing investigation.
Republican lawmakers questioned whether election officials jumped to conclusions based on conversations with a small group of people.
“We appreciate that the board and their staff have been thorough,” said the co-chair of the oversight committee, Rep. Jake Johnson, a Polk County Republican. “But we wonder if they have been selectively thorough. Has the Democratic-majority board moved the goalposts to keep the Justice for All Party off the ballot?”
Although a lawsuit was expected to challenge the council’s 3-2 vote on July 16, Justice for All Party of North Carolina Chairman Italo Medelius said his group had nothing to do with the lawsuit filed Monday. He said the group would file its own lawsuit.
The attorneys who filed the lawsuit have a history of defending Republican causes. One of them is Phil Strach, who has worked for years to defend redistricting maps drawn by GOP lawmakers. The Associated Press emailed Strach Tuesday seeking comment.
The lawsuit alleges that the state Justice for All board failed to provide specific evidence to discredit the more than 17,000 signatures that were validated. The plaintiffs want a judge to rule that Justice for All is an official party that can place candidates’ names on the ballot. State election officials have said that the deadline for parties to name their presidential candidates is mid-August.
The campaign in the West said it has gained ballot access in 12 other states, but acknowledged that some certifications still need to be completed.